Wonderful workshop on May 22nd entitled Food Preservation with Heidi Williamson. She continues this idea of preserving what you eat on June 19th with canning jams and jellies. I learn so much at these workshops and was amazed at all the food you can actually dry. Visited several sites on Thursday of last week and it was difficult to leave the field and come to the office. I picked peas with Leeroy in his beautiful garden and Judy gave me lettuce and onions. Both of these gardens were incredible with potatoes already blooming. Connie and Lynn have a huge field of corn planted because they have many mouths to feed and those mouths love corn cut off the cob. Visited with one of our new participants, Willy, and he, too, is doing a great job with his garden. I have pictures but will have to post those later because I forgot the camera. Instead I will give you a simple recipe for canned tomatoes:

1 jar of tomatoes ( I use a pint of home canned tomatoes and a can of diced tomatoes with mild green chilies)

1/2 cup of sugar

1 tablespoon of butter

salt and pepper to taste

2 or 3 slices of toast, cubed

Cook tomatoes and butter until it is shiny, then add toast and cook a few more minutes. Wonderfully simple side dish that compliments anything from pork to chicken to brown beans.